Penfolds, South Australia (Australia) 2014

I’ve tasted almost every vintage of this wine for the past 20 years, so I’ve got plenty of context for what follows.  Naturally, I didn’t taste the wines side-by-side, so I can’t say that this is the best Bin 389 ever released by Penfolds, but I can certainly say that I can’t remember a better one.  That’s important because this wine’s price has increased appreciably in recent years, whereas it was once priced fairly closely to the Bin 28 and Bin 128 bottlings of Shiraz (now at $30).  Accordingly, if you were returning to this after an interim of some years, you’d expect a lot more for you money.  And in the case of this 2014, you’d get it.  Bin 389 has long been called Penfolds’ “Baby Grange.”  Although I’m not sure that winemaker Peter Gago is particularly fond of that coinage (since Grange is absolutely, positively unique…as anyone who has tasted the wine from any vintage will tell you), the 2014 Bin 389 really measures up to the “second wines” of Bordeaux’s First Growth Chateaux.  Moreover, based on the fact that the current low price for the 2010 vintage of Carrauades de Lafite is $200, there’s little question that Penfolds is outperforming the “Super Seconds” with regard to value.  This is very darkly pigmented and equally impressively concentrated, with extremely deep flavors.  However, what is most impressive is that the wine is already amazingly well integrated, with perfectly proportioned, dark-toned fruit that has already absorbed almost all the overt oak notes and easily counterbalances the serious (but not coarse or astringent) tannins.  Accents of cocoa powder and light toast add interesting complexity, and the wine’s freshness is uncanny for its weight.  In sum, this is absolutely terrific.